School of Medicine

Two international teams of researchers have made significant gains in understanding the genetic basis of psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that can be debilitating in some patients. Their research, involving thousands of patients, is reported in two studies published this week in the advance online Nature Genetics.

Washington University graduate student Kim Lorenz collects yeast samples from Pennsylvania oak trees as part of a project to analyze how genes interact to produce complex traits.In recent years, genetic studies have uncovered hundreds of DNA variations linked to common diseases, such as cancer or diabetes, raising the prospect that scientists can gauge disease risk based on information in an individual’s genome. But the variations identified to date only account for a small percentage – typically one to three percent – of the overall genetic risk of any common disease.

Lodge Jennifer Lodge has been named associate dean for research at the School of Medicine. The appointment is effective Feb. 1, 2009. In the newly created position, Lodge will coordinate efforts to advance research at the school, focusing particularly on projects that involve multiple departments, multiple disciplines and core facilities that can serve a wide variety of researchers.

Gross (left) and Xianlin Han analyze samplesResearchers at the School of Medicine, led by heart specialist Richard Gross, are studying how altered fat metabolism causes heart failure in diabetic patients. They have received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their investigations.

Many older adults worry — a lot. Almost one in 10 Americans over age 60 suffer from an anxiety disorder that causes them to worry excessively about normal things — like health, finances, disability and family. Although antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can improve anxiety symptoms in younger adults, little has been known about their effects in older people. In the largest study of SSRIs in older people with anxiety disorders, a team of psychiatric researchers found the drug escitalopram (Lexapro®) improved anxiety symptoms and quality of life.

WilsonWilliam Julius Wilson, one of the nation’s leading scholars on race and urban poverty, will deliver this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration lecture at 4 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Eric P. Newman Education Center, 320 S. Euclid, on the School of Medicine campus.

Marcia Munk, Universidade Federal de São PauloWhat if free exercise classes were offered in public spaces such as parks, beaches and recreation centers? When a city government in Brazil tried such a program, it greatly increased physical activity among community members. A group of health researchers who studied the program believes it could also work in U.S. cities with warm climates.

In small towns in the Midwestern United States, people who eat out often at buffets and cafeterias and who perceive their community to be unpleasant for physical activity are more likely to be obese. The findings are published in the December issue of Preventive Medicine.

Six faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. The highest honor awarded by AAAS, the rank of fellow is bestowed upon members by their peers in recognition of scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

One of the most pernicious aspects of multiple sclerosis (MS) — its sheer unpredictability — may finally be starting to yield to advanced medical imaging techniques. Researchers from the School of Medicine report online in the journal Neurology that an approach known as magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allowed them to estimate three months in advance the chronic effects of inflammation of the optic nerve.